In 1860 wordt in de tuin van een afgelegen landhuis in Wiltshire een driejarig jongetje vermoord gevonden. Wanneer het de lokale politie niet lukt deze zaak op te lossen krijgt Jack Whicher van Scotland Yard de opdracht de moord te onderzoeken.
Almost seven years ago now my Uncle Rory set out from his girlfriend's house in Glasgow to ride a motorbike to my father's house at Lochgair. He never got there. My Uncle Rory's disappearance wasn't the beginning of the mystery, it turned out, and it certainly wasn't the end. I don't know where my part in all of this begins, let's say for the sake of argument it was the day my grandmother exploded.
